EGR Cooler Cleaning (What I learned!..)

And just like that, you've earned three more Good For You's!

 

I just changed the plugs before pulling off the EGR pipe. Would pics of those provide any hints about what my situation may be?

The car has run flawlessly for the 15K miles I have had it and I have been watching everything closely with Torque Pro and all numbers there have looked great. In between oil changes (5K) I have not have to add a single drop of oil. I think in the 15K I have had this car I've added less than half a quart.

Obviously the guy lied about cleaning the EGR system, but what I'm hoping is that he cleaned the system for his sister after she bought the car. Which would mean as of right now it's been right at 100K miles since it was cleaned. I will post pics after I get it apart.

 

Yeah maybe he was honest about cleaning the EGR, but it was more like 100k miles back, or more. That would tie in to the car’s current condition:

cruddy EGR interior
it hasn’t blown head gasket

or it’s got a transplant engine?

 

He definitely lied when he said he "just did it". He may have done it when his sister bought the car. Definitely not a transplant engine. He would have used that as a selling point. I am not sure what 100K miles of crud build up looks like, but here are the pics. I was happy to see light coming through in a few spots but was not able to get that in a picture unfortunately.

BTW in one of the Youtube videos on this procedure, I saw your comment recommending draining 2 quarts from the radiator instead of clamping hoses off..... VERY glad I saw that. Thanks

 

Need to take the intake manifold off and clean all of the little and big holes.... you can reuse the gasket.
See how big a puddle of oil you have in the bottom right.......

I know a lot about these cars because I've replaced everything..... and I did all of the work myself.
Master Cylinder and Accumulator
Inverter
Water Pump
Traction Battery
Boot Up Battery
Head Gasket
Transmission

 

Website was slow and I clicked the reply 3 times......

 

If you were to use a pressure washer you will at some point let the EGR cooler slip out of your hand and the high pressure water from the nozzle tip of the pressure washer will penetrate the deep tissues of your hand. When this accident occurs you will learn what it means for an orthopedist to have a subspecialty in hand and wrist. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE A PRESSURE WASHER AND HOLD THE EGR WITH YOUR HAND EVER NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK YOU CAN DO AND NO MATTER HOW STRONG YOU THINK YOU ARE AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU THINK THIS EGR WILL NOT SLIP OUT OF YOUR HAND.

Use of any caustic solvent followed by pressurized air requires that you have a protective shield for your face and eyes. Stick with the coat hanger and compressed air. After all brake cleaner doesn't dissolve carbon

 

Will be working on cleaning that and EGR tomorrow. Picked up 2 cans of brake cleaner at Walmart and got a 3 pack of oven cleaner from Sam's Club. Got quite a few different brushes. No pressure washer though.

There was a fair amount of oil inside the intake. About the same amount NutzAboutBolts found in his intake manifold cleaning video.

Oil catch can will arrive Monday, planning to install it Tuesday and be done with this awful process LOL.

 

Oven cleaner is NaOH. It's a strong base. Brake cleaner is a petroleum based solvent. You can dissolve the oil with the sodium hydroxide but again this is going to go in your eyes. You can get away with using it in the stainless steel cooler but you're going to melt the EGR valve with it because that's aluminum. Return the oven cleaner. Get a metal coat hanger

 

@Aenima Intake channels in your cam look very gunked if compared to mine. Unfortunately i did not take pictures but my channels had aluminum color and just faint of black in just certain areas. Valves completely free of gunk/carbon. I was actually surprised to see how clean they were. 220kkm on the clock. I only use 98 (if it matters) and Prius specific oil. Oil consumption around 0.4L/1000km so it does burn some. Anyway, maybe good idea to clean intake ports as well. But that’s more tricky than egr system cleaning

 

Do not use the oven cleaner on the egr valve. Use it for the egr cooler, and other
stainless steal parts. Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands.
Spray the oven clean into both ends of the cooler, wait 10 ro 15 seconds then
spray again, do this a few times then let it sit for at least 30 minutes.
Then use the pressure washer to clear it out.
Carb cleaner works better for the valve, and a wire brush.

Any tool is not safe if used incorrectly. Use common sense and it is safe.

 

The only other part besides the cooler that is stainless steel is the pipe, correct? Oven cleaner is no joke --- I got elbow length gloves at Harbor Freight, lol. As for pressure washer wish I had one. Just planning to give the cooler extra soaks for now.

 

That's correct. And you really don't need oven cleaner (or oxi), for the pipe, which is simple to clean with with brushes and carb cleaner. So I would only use these caustic cleaners on the cooler. The intake manifold too: has non-stainless steel embeds that will react.

This is how I got my cooler, last fall, with just "oxi-clean versatile stain remover", a powdered mixed with hot tap water, as concentrated as possible. Took 4~5 one hour soaks, with rinses in-between each soak. To be fair, it had very light build-up to begin with, this was second and maybe last cleaning, considering our low usage:

 

I don't think there are any commercial chemicals that would easily clean it with a long soak. Might be unsafe either way if one used something that strong in and around a home garage. I second those who recommend to soak in oven clean or oxi clean and then use a pressure washer; I soaked mine for a couple days in oxi and then went to a commercial car wash to blast out the crud (I wedged the cooler into a drainage gate and used my foot to clamp it down, had great leverage). I also used a large zip lock bag with a hole cut in the bottom for the nozzle so carbon wouldn't splash back at me.

 

Somebody used a bicycle spoke to open up the passages.

 

I found a regular gauge coax cable wire (sheathing all stripped off) just about right.

 

I'm done with everything but the cooler. I have given it four, 1-hour soaks so far in oven cleaner. Looking very good, still plenty of black coming out. Any reason to not soak the cooler overnight? I don't want to damage it. Thanks again

 

That sounds like THE ideal tool for the job.... thank you for that tip, I will definitely be stopping by the bike shop tomorrow.

 

No, should be fine. Only thing, seems like it loses oomph after about an hour, multiple hour-long soaks would be more effective. But an overnight soak is worth a try.

 

75 ohm?